How to find a job in Australia — boards, cities, and a weekly system
Seek for volume, LinkedIn for recruiter reach, state government portals for public roles, and a weekly apply cadence that prefers match quality over spray-and-pray.
"How to find a job in Australia" is less a secret board and more a routing problem. Private-sector volume still concentrates on Seek; LinkedIn wins for corporate sourcing and career-switch narrative; Indeed and Jora add long-tail listings; Workforce Australia lists roles for income-support job seekers; each state runs its own public-service portal.
Board stack that covers most searches
Seek: set JobMail alerts by title + suburb radius + work type. Complete the Seek profile so employers can find you. LinkedIn: keyword-optimised headline, Open to Work settings that match your visa reality, and selective Easy Apply only when the JD is complete enough to score. Company career pages: follow 15 target employers and turn on alerts.
Government: I work for NSW, Careers.Vic, jobs.wa.gov.au / Jobs WA search, and other state sites Services Australia lists for public roles. Do not expect those vacancies to behave like Seek — selection criteria and closing dates are strict.
City notes: Sydney and Perth as examples
Sydney densifies corporate, tech, professional services, and government. Commute and hybrid norms vary by CBD vs suburbs — filter location honestly. Networking and agency relationships matter more in competitive graduate and mid-level corporate lanes.
Perth and WA add resources, energy, FIFO, and a large state government footprint via Jobs WA and Jobs and Skills WA. FIFO and regional roles need explicit roster and medical readiness in your summary. A Sydney-tuned CV that never mentions site, ticket, or roster language will underperform in WA resources hiring.
Weekly operating system
Monday: refresh alerts, shortlist 15 roles, kill anything below your match threshold. Tue–Thu: deep-tailor and submit 5–8 high-quality applications; log each in one pipeline. Friday: follow-ups, agency check-ins, and skills practice on gaps that repeated across JDs.
If you are new to the country
Stabilise work rights language on the resume, get an Australian-formatted PDF, and prioritise employers who have hired your visa class before. Pair board search with one local network channel (alumni, industry association, community). Research panels in DocuResume help you read country and title temperature before you burn a week on the wrong lane.